A Fighting Chance
by PrincessDaydream77
Summary: After years of fighting, Cygnus and Druella choose to divorce for their daughters' sake. Bellatrix and Andromeda decide to stay with their father, while Narcissa decides to leave with their mother. The two live peacefully in Calais for seven years, until the experemental resurrection of a deadly tournament brings three magical schools together. Will Narcissa have a fighting chance?
1. Broken Routine

A Fighting Chance

Summary: After years of fighting, Cygnus and Druella finally choose to divorce for the sake of their daughters. Bellatrix and Andromeda decide to stay with their father, while young Narcissa eventually decides to leave with their mother. The two lived peacefully in Calais for seven years, until the experemental resurrection of a deadly tournament brings three magical schools together. But when Narcissa is chosen to represent Beauxbattons alongside a platinum-haired boy from Hogwarts, does the young girl really have a fighting chance?

Disclaimer: I only own the idea, nothing more.

Chapter One

The overwhelming noise of screams of rage and shattering china resounded through the great house. The pair of adults who were arguing had long since given up on their efforts in keeping the noise down, their voices raised to the point of breaking. Any guest to the house would've found the sound unusually harsh, perhaps even almost unbearable, but not the girls sitting in their respective bedrooms just a few flights of stairs away. No, for the Black girls, it was merely routine.

Bellatrix's door had been violently slammed shut, a well-known signal that only her parents may enter, while Andromeda had more gently done the same. Both doors had almost as loud noises emanating from behind them, Bellatrix's own yells and Andromeda's music cranked up to full volume. Narcissa, however, had never been as extreme as her two elder sisters and such was noticable when you passed her bedroom, as very little noise was coming from behind the door, other than the subtle sound of sobbing.

Quite suddenly, though, the screaming stopped, as did Bellatrix's yells and Andromeda's music. Narcissa had no idea why, but her cries seemed to suddenly stop as well. Her mind had truly gone blank, but it was not destined to remain that way. At least, not for long.

Thirty minutes later, all three girls were standing in the drawing room with their parents before them, five pairs of eyes fixed upon a few pieces of parchment laid down on the table. As always, Bellatrix spoke first.

"So... what happens now?" the eldest girl asked, stepping forward from her sisters ever so slightly.

"What happens next is up to you, girls." Druella stated kindly, her gaze travelling across her three children, the only remaining part of her marriage.

"Your mother shall be leaving the house permanantly, as this shall be a clean break seperation. The choice that you have to make, girls, is who you shall be living with. You may make this choice individually or together, but it shall be final. Your mother and I shall not see each other again, so you may not see the parent you do not choose. Naturally, we shall give you some time to consider, but-" Cygnus elaborated, though he was stopped as Bellatrix spoke out once more.

"Excuse me, Papa, but I shan't be needing any time. I have already made my decision." she stated confidently, stepping forward yet another inch.

"Have you indeed?" Cygnus questioned. "And that would be?"

"I am staying here with you, Papa, of course. My life is here and I think it silly to leave it now, whatever the reason."

"Thank you, Bellatrix. Andromeda?"

"I feel the same, Papa." Andromeda responded, tilting her head to the side in an attempt to avoid her mother's slowly blurring gaze.

"Hm. And you, Narcissa?" Cygnus turned to the youngest, who was staring intently at the floor as if were the most interesting thing she had ever seen. Realising that everyone was staring directly at her, she raised her gaze, her eyes steadily filling with tears.

"I don't want to choose, Papa!" the youngest girl cried. "I just want everything to stay as it is, as it always has been. I want someone to tell me what to choose. Mama, Papa, please, just tell me who to choose."

"It truly is your decision, my darling. However, if your sisters are staying with your father, then... it kills me to say it, but perhaps you should as well." Druella sighed, her reluctance barely hidden as she spoke the words she had always dreaded saying. Narcissa met her mother's gaze, unshed tears blurring her eyes, mirrored in her mother's, before slowly and sadly nodding her head.

"Then it is settled. Druella, how long shall it take you to gather your things?"

"I already have, thank you. I'll fetch my coat and then I will be off."

The woman left the room briefly, returning with a coat. She moved forward to her daughters, kissing each on the cheek in turn, before lifting her two suitcases and exiting the room. The last thing heard before the silence was the slamming of the front door.

A slight gasp pierced the air before the blonde sister bolted from the room, taking the steps two, even three, at a time, leaving a few confused family members in her wake.

However, all became clear as Narcissa bounded back down the staircase, a small suitcase enveloped in her arms. She dropped the suitcase as soon as she entered the room, embracing both her sisters at once and then her father. She shared one last saddened glance with her family before grasping the suitcase and running, the slam of the front door audible for the second time that evening.

Meanwhile, Druella had reached the gates at the edge of Black Manor's rolling gardens. She knew that, once she crossed the line between the gardens and the small village beyond, she would be free. But she would have a weight upon her soul for the rest of her life. Still, she raised her boot and was about to place the foreshoe down when a shout came from behind her.

"Wait! Wait, don't go! Mama, stop!" The cry was unmistakable and Druella was more than relieved to hear it. She spun around immediately and enveloped her youngest daughter in her arms, lifting her from the ground in the process.

"Cissa! Oh, my Cissa, my darling!" Druella exclaimed. The pair embraced for a long while, before standing up and taking their first step together.

"Here it is, Mama. We're free."

"That we are, darling. This is our first step to our new life together."

A/N: All written today, so any mistakes will be corrected later. Please review!


	2. My Baby Girl

Chapter Two

A/N: No reviewers, sadly. Please review, readers, because it really makes me happy. Also, I don't own the song used at the end of the chapter.

The endless sparkling waters of the ocean were all that could be seen for miles around. There was no sign of land in any direction and the only sign of life outside the large white ferry was the lapping of the waves against the hull of the ship.

_It is quite therapeutic, listening to the waves_, thought Narcissa, staring off into the horizon in the hope of seeing a miniscule section of land. But none appeared. Narcissa sighed a little in frustration.

"We shan't be there for a while, darling." Druella stated from the doorway, having heard her daughter's exasperated sigh. Narcissa turned at her mother's voice, a slight smile appearing on her face. Druella had come into the room, shutting and locking the door behind her. It was only then that Narcissa noticed the tray her mother was carrying.

"I got you something to eat. I thought you'd be hungry, you didn't eat much at dinner." Druella explained, setting the tray down on the bed. Narcissa nodded in appreciation, sitting gently down on the edge of the bed. Her smile spread wider once she realised the contents of the tray. There was a bowl of creamy-looking pasta with tiny pieces of broccoli littered through it, alongside a small glass of orange juice.

"It's your favourite, sweetheart."

"Then you noticed. Papa didn't, he still thinks that my favourite food is a tomato soup with a smile drawn on in cream."

"I suppose that he still sees you as a little child, like I do. You'll always be my baby, no matter what." said Druella, stroking her daughter's hair affectionately.

"But I'm not a baby, Mama. I'm almost eleven years old. I don't always want to be the baby." protested Narcissa, pouting a little in an attempt to look annoyed, but instead leaving both her mother and eventually herself in fits of giggles.

"No? Well, you'll just have to lump it for a while, I'm afraid. Besides, there isn't much difference between you and your cousins." Druella pointed out, causing Narcissa's jaw to drop.

"Mama, Amorette is barely younger than Bellatrix, and she's the youngest of her family!" Narcissa exclaimed.

"Yes, I suppose so, sweetheart, but that is not that much of a difference."

"Four years, Mama!" she continued, a slight tone of exasperation in her voice.

"Well, there are five years between my brother, my sister and myself, so I do not really see a four year gap as that much of a difference."

"Well, I do. But I suppose there is nothing that I can do about that."

"No, I doubt there is, sweetheart. Nevertheless, you and your cousins get along, don't you?" Druella asked, suddenly a slight bit of worry entering her voice.

"Yes, Mama, I think we do. But I suppose I can learn to get along with the ones I don't. Like Max." Narcissa sighed, ending the conversation and beginning to eat her pasta. However, she knew that she had brought her mother's worry to an end, the thing she had hoped to accomplish, as an amused smile had crept its way onto the elder woman's face.

Once her plate was cleared, the two women readied themselves for bed, Narcissa having to sleep in her dress as she had not thought to pack her nightdress during her blind panic, and after a few minutes, the two were lying in their respective beds.

"Mama?" Narcissa whispered, a few minutes after the lights had been extinguished.

"Yes, sweetheart?" Druella replied, her voice laced with fatigue.

"We will be alright, won't we? I can stay with you." The girl's voice was quite uncertain, something her mother was uncertain herself as to whether she could remedy.

"Narcissa," Druella began, selecting her next words carefully, so she did not upset the young girl. "I cannot guarantee that you may stay with me, as your father may take this case to the Ministry to get you back. In fact, I do not doubt that he will. But... sweetheart, I want you to know that no matter how long it takes or whatever shall happen, I will always love you, so _so_ much and I will fight for you until my final breath." She turned to her daughter as she spoke the final words, trying to guage her reaction. As she had expected and feared, Narcissa was silently crying into her pillow. Barely thinking about what she was doing, Druella rose from her bed, walking over to her daughter's and lifting the girl into her arms, placing her back down in Druella's own bed and climbing in herself. Instantly, the younger blonde wrapped her arms around her mother's neck and leant her head on her shoulder, seemingly unable to fall into the comforting clutches of sleep. Druella saw this, knowing her daughter well enough to know what would make her comfortable enough to finally give into her dreams. Sitting up with her arms wrapped around the ten-year-old girl, Druella opened her mouth and began to sing softly, an old Muggle song that her own mother had used to sing her to sleep as a teenage girl.

_Somewhere over the rainbow,  
Way up high,  
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby._

_Somewhere over the rainbow,  
Skies are blue,  
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true._

_Someday, I'll wish upon a star,  
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me.  
Where troubles melt like lemon drops,  
From way above the chimney tops,  
That's where you'll find me._

_Somewhere over the rainbow,  
Bluebirds fly,  
Birds fly over the rainbow,  
Why, oh why can't I?_

_If happy little bluebirds fly,  
Beyond the rainbow,  
Why, oh why can't I?_

The woman finished the song softly, staring down at the girl in her arms, who was now breathing evenly as she slept peacefully. Druella smiled at the sight, her own eyelids drooping. Well, she may not have her home anymore, or her marriage and social good name, but she had her baby girl and that was good enough for Druella Rosier.

A/N: Again, please review. I'm sorry that I'm not updating much, but I've had loads of homework, five assessments, including a speaking and listening in English that I still haven't done. Also, I can't update tomorrow, as I'm going to the Making of Harry Potter Tour, at Leavesden Studios. Exciting!


	3. The House of Rosier

Chapter Three

A/N: Thanks to my first reviewer, dream-on-sunday. You're great!

_It was amazing. Narcissa was walking through a field full of blossom trees and blooming flowers. That was brilliant enough, but the sight before her was the one that Narcissa had truly wanted for so long._

_There, sitting on a green checkered picnic blanket studded with dozens of different small dishes of food, were her family. They were all sitting together. Not fighting, not glaring, not completely ignoring each other at all, just... talking and laughing._

_The first person to notice the young blonde was Druella, who immediately stood and walked over to her, wrapping her arms around the young girl and leading her towards the blanket, where she sat and began to eat and laugh with the rest of the family. Everything was practically perfect._

"_Are you alright, Cissy?" asked Bellatrix, leaning forward a little past their father so as to get a better look at her._

"_Yes, I'm fine, Bella. I'm absolutely fine." Narcissa smiled in return, for once speaking the truth when that question was put to her._

"_Good. You just seemed a little bit... distant. Away with the fairies, were we?" the dark-haired girl joked, tapping her arm lightly in jest._

"_Perhaps I was, I don't really remember." the blonde replied, her smile still prevalent on her face._

"_Probably because you were away with the fairies!" Andromeda exclaimed with a grin._

"_Well, now you are truly ganging up on me!" Narcissa pouted, a smile returning to her face one moment later._

"_Now, now, sweetheart." Druella chastised lightly, separating one of Narcissa's loose curls from the others and twisting it around her finger. That was another thing that Narcissa had noticed. Her parents were together once more, laughing, joking and even kissing every once in a while. They were a family at last. Narcissa decided to move across to beside Andromeda, wanting to get a better view of her parents, causing Druella to let an almost confused chuckle escape her lips._

"_What's the matter, sweetheart?" she asked. Narcissa was away with the fairies once more and did not answer._

"_Sweetheart?" Druella said once more._

"_Yes, Mama?" Narcissa responded, after a light dig in the ribs from Bellatrix._

"_Sweetheart?" Druella repeated, seemingly oblivious to the fact that her daughter was now looking directly at her._

"Sweetheart!"

Narcissa sat bolt upright immediately in her bed, to see her mother standing over her, her expression the perfect balance between amusement and concern.

"Are you alright, sweetheart?" her mother asked, her eyebrows raised subtly.

"Yes, Mama. I was just dreaming, that's all." the ten-year-old replied, her voice showing the same daze as surrounded her mind.

"I could see that!" Druella commented, smiling at the girl. "What about?"

"Just... nothing, really. Just dreaming." Narcissa eventually replied, deciding against informing her mother of the contents of her dream, for fear that she may upset her. Druella looked a little skeptical for a moment, before simply brushing off her daughter's odd behaviour and continuing to speak.

"Oh, well. Never mind. Anyway, Cissa, I just came to tell you that we've arrived."

"Have we?" Narcissa questioned, her voice surprised. It was at this point that she rose from her bed and crossed the small room to the window. Sure enough, land was right ahead of them, as they were only a few dozen metres away from the dock.

"Time to go." Druella finished.

A few hours later, the beautiful gardens of Château des Rosiers came into view. Narcissa gasped in amazement, having never seen the house before. She had seen and conversed with her numerous Rosier cousins, of course, but that had always been in another family's house or in her own, meaning she had never visited the glorious family building itself.

"It's beautiful!" the young girl breathed, more to herself than to her mother, though the woman nodded slightly in agreement, that the elder's childhood home was the most beautiful place either had ever seen.

"Yes, it truly is."

Before they knew it, the pair was standing in front of the royal blue front door. They shared a glance when Druella reached up to tap the golden, rose-shaped knocker. Even though she had not attended the house for a long time, she had not come face-to-face with her mother since Bellatrix's birth, some fifteen years previous. Nevertheless, she tapped the knocker on the door and, a few minutes later, it opened, revealing a tall, blonde woman, whose face lit up at the sight of the two of them.

"Ella!" the woman cried, running forward to sweep her younger sister into a hug.

"Hello, Marguerite!" Druella exclaimed in return. The woman then turned to her niece and wrapped her arms around the shaking girl.

"Hello, Auntie Margie." Narcissa smiled, her voice muffled slightly by the fabric covering her aunt's shoulder.

"Oh, hello, Cissa! Oh my goodness! What are you doing here?" Marguerite asked in surprise, releasing Narcissa from her embrace and turning to her sister.

"It's done." The two words cut through the excitement like a knife through butter, leaving only a pained silence hanging in the air. Marguerite sighed in sadness at the tears slowly filling Druella's eyes.

"Cissa?" Marguerite began, catching her niece's attention. "Why don't you go upstairs and see your cousins? I need to have a chat with Mama."

Narcissa nodded slightly before reaching up and wrapping her arms around Druella's neck. Her mother smiled widely through her tears and held her daughter close to her, before sending her on her way up the stairs.

The young girl walked quite slowly up the winding steps, wincing each time a sob echoed up through the marbled staircases. Narcissa considered more than once flying back down the steps to comfort the woman, but knew that she should leave her mother with her Aunt Marguerite, as she was instructed.

Narcissa finally stopped when she reached a door at the end of the corridor she was stood in, her hand pausing in the air in front of it, while she considered whether or not to knock. Summarising that she was being ridiculous, Narcissa knocked the door loudly. A reply came swiftly from inside and the young girl pushed the door open slowly.

Sitting inside the large room were six young adults, two boys and four girls in a group and, though they were all dimly aware of the presence in the doorway, were deep in conversation. One of the girls, seemingly an elder one, however, noticed the younger girl, standing abruptly from her seat with a beaming smile forming on her face.

"Is that my little Cissa?" the girl asked, her green eyes glittering when she pushed her light brown hair out of them.

"Hi, Corry." Narcissa replied, smiling for the first time since listening to her mother's sobs from the staircase. Corry then raised her arms and swept her younger cousin into a hug.

"Oh my goodness, what are you doing here, darling?" asked another girl, blonde with the same green eyes, pulling Narcissa out of Corry's arms and into her own.

"It's a long story, Amie, your papa will probably tell you when he gets back. Or Auntie Marguerite will."

"You know she will, she always sticks her nose in it, Mum does." laughed Marguerite's son, winking at Narcissa. The almost identical girl beside him laughed too, tossing her brown hair while her hazel eyes sparkled.

"Yeah, she does. She'll kill for gossip." the girl added with a giggle.

"Max, Zee, she isn't that bad!" Narcissa exclaimed with an affectionate smile.

"That's because you don't live with her!" added the last boy, smiling up from his seat at his younger cousin.

"I do now, I think, so I guess I'll find out. Hi, Evan." Narcissa finished

"Hiya, Ciss." replied the same boy, named Evan. "So, are you one of us now?"

Narcissa was suddenly silenced, considering what her cousin had said. She had never thought of herself as a Rosier before, only as a Black. But if her mother had now retaken that name, she supposed it was hers to claim as well.

Narcissa Rosier.

A/N: Sorry about how long it's been. Please review!


	4. A Dream Shattered

Chapter Four

A/N: Thanks to my great reviewer, , your words were really kind.

For the first time in her life, Narcissa woke up in a bed that was not her own. Throughout her childhood, even when she suffered from terrible nightmares, she had slept in her own bed. She had had to, really. Bellatrix and Andromeda would call her a baby, and would not allow her to sleep in their beds, and Narcissa would never go to her parents' bedroom, as that would confirm what her sisters would say. '_Besides, they would probably be arguing too much to hear me knock_.' Narcissa thought with sadness.

Still, to her surprise, she had awoken in a beautiful gold and celeste coloured room, as opposed to the emerald and silver one she was used to. She had been terrified for a moment, not knowing where she was, until she remembered. They had run away.

It was still strange to think of for Narcissa, that she was unlikely to see Bella and Meda again, but it was for the best. Her father had always been violent towards her mother, ever since she could remember, but he had never once laid a hand on his daughters. This way, they would all be safe and happy.

With that contenting thought on her mind, the young girl rose from the bed, which she noted was very similar to the one she had dreamt of as a child, a feature probably of her mother's design. She walked over to the ornate wardrobe, opening it to find her own familiar dressing gown, which she threw on as she walked out of the door.

It took the blonde around five minutes to locate the dining room, as she had never been there before and the house was not hugely different to a labyrinth. When she arrived, all members of the family were seated and talking away. It was Corrynne that first noticed Narcissa's arrival.

"You found us, then?" she asked, an amused smile flickering across her face.

"Yes." Narcissa replied, giggling a little in embarrassment.

"Come and sit next to me, sweetheart." Druella beckoned, patting the seat beside her at the table. Narcissa obeyed quickly, setting herself into the seat beside her mother. "Did you sleep alright?"

"Yes, Mama." Narcissa responded, nodding her head as she did so.

"Good." Druella said, with a satisfied smile.

The discussions quietened after that, as the many occupants of the table ate their fill of breakfast. It was not for another fifteen minutes that the noise picked up again, though this time, the response was not positive.

The first noise had sounded at the window, a soft rapping of talons on glass. Upon turning to see it, the family could see a pure white owl sitting on the ledge. None of the children could recognise it, nor could the majority of the adults, but for Druella, it was painfully clear where it had come from.

The woman herself bolted to the window, unlocking the latch and plucking the letter from the bird's beak, barely having time to get a grip on the envelope before it had flown away again, not even staying to be given a treat. Given where it came from, the blonde was hardly surprised.

"What's that, Druella?" Cyrus asked, glancing past his wife towards her sister with a look of deep interest on his face. That look was mirrored with a slightly more worried one from her daughter.

"Mama?" Narcissa asked, her tone shaking slightly. Druella showed no sign that she had heard either voice, instead staring almost blindly at the page that she held in shaking hands. When she finally seemed to notice the room of people staring at her, the only move she made in return was to hand the letter to Marguerite.

Narcissa, by this time, was sick of not being told of anything. The moment her aunt tried to return the letter to her mother, the young girl all but snatched it from the woman's hand, beginning to read from the second the words came into sight.

_Ms. Druella N. Rosier,  
It has been brought to the attention of the British Ministry of Magic that on the night of the 24th June, soon after you were served with divorce papers by Mr. Cygnus Black, you left the Black family manor in Somerset, with one of Mr. Black's children.  
Due to the severity of these actions, the Ministry has come to the decision that, for her own safety, the child, Miss Narcissa C. Black, must be returned to her father immediately, where she will remain until the results of the court hearing are returned.  
If you do not comply with this command, you may be charged with the further offence of perverting the cause of justice, in which case__,__ the chances of you retaining custody over Miss Black will be dramatically reduced.  
Hoping you are well,  
Hogarth Meliflua._

Now, even though she did not understand the majority of the charges, Narcissa could see why her mother had been so afraid. If a letter from the Ministry of Magic mentioned charges, then that could not possibly be a good thing. The silence that filled the room merely proved this fact.

"Mama, what does it mean?" Narcissa asked softly, after an incalculable period of silence. For the first time, Druella reacted immediately and with full consciousness. She stood from her chair, crossing the room to bend down beside her chair, stroking a stray curl of hair away from her fearful face.

"Cissa… this letter says that I've essentially abducted you. It means that you don't belong here with me, that I took you away and I shouldn't have done it. Sweetheart, this means… that…"

"It means that I have to go home." Narcissa filled in for her mother, whose eyes were steadily blurring with tears of anguish. It had been much more of a statement than a question, which only intensified Druella's tears.

"Yes. It means that you have to go back to England." Druella told her daughter, fighting valiantly to speak through her tears, to give the child the answers she needed. "But I need you to know this, Narcissa. I will never stop fighting for you. If I lose this battle, then I'll begin another one, and I will never give up, not until I have you safe at home with me."

A/N: And so the battle begins! Please review!


	5. First Hand

Chapter Five

A/N: Thanks to LeeLee for being a great reviewer.

There it loomed before her. The place that she had once called home. Black Manor.

Even at night, the house had never seemed so imposing to Narcissa, so dark and so twisted, but now it was the only thought that remained in the girl's mind. The thought that meant she would rather be anywhere than here.

However, that thought was pulled to the back of her mind as the front door of the place swung wide open, revealing from behind it a face Narcissa had never thought she would see again.

"Andy?" the young girl questioned, refusing to believe what her eyes told her she was seeing, even when the brunette nodded, her face lit up in a beaming smile.

"Cissy!" she exclaimed in response, running out from behind the door to embrace the ten year old, who had silently allowed a single tear to escape from her eye in her happiness. "I can't believe you're home!"

"I can't believe it either." the girl admitted, as much to herself as to her sister, whose beaming smile had not reduced an inch, and whose embrace neither was eager to end soon. Unfortunately, fate had other ideas, as a large figure had appeared in the doorway, flanked by another, slightly smaller one.

"Narcissa." This was a statement, not a question, and there was a hint of something in her father's voice that the girl had never heard before. Evidently, from the looks on their faces, both Andromeda and Bellatrix, the smaller figure, had done.

"Good evening, Papa." Narcissa responded to the man, trying to keep her head high, but the natural anxiety of her age took over, causing her voice to tremble beyond her control and longing for the safety of her sisters' embrace to return to her. This did not go unnoticed by Andromeda, who once again wrapped an arm around the younger girl's shoulders, though the action was frowned upon by the dark haired man walking towards the pair.

"Right, girls. Inside, all of you. Narcissa, wait in my study." he stated firmly, leaving no room for disobedience. That part of him was familiar, at least.

Just a single minute later, Narcissa was sat uncomfortably in a high backed chair, parallel to the one behind her father's desk. It was one of the most imposing sights the young blonde had seen in her life, and she knew that it had been specifically designed to be so.

The man had not yet entered the room, and she knew almost without a doubt that the man was briefing her sisters on how to behave around her. Narcissa already knew that she would be treated highly differently to the other two girls, and knew she was probably going to be strictly separated. She was a traitor, after all.

With barely a second thought, the girl leapt to her feet the moment she heard the door click open. Proper respect was always demanded in the Pureblood households, as much in the Rosiers' as in the Blacks', so Narcissa was not out of practice with the trait.

"Sit." was the first instruction the girl was given, and she complied without hesitation. Dawdling would only make things worse for her. Once her father was settled behind his desk, hands folded together on the surface of it, the man began his interrogation. "Narcissa, why did you leave the household after your mother did?"

For a split second, the girl considered lying, telling the man that she had simply been mistaken, but she couldn't. For one, fabrication was another thing outlawed in society, when speaking to elders at least, but that was not truly why. After all the woman had done for her, she could not just allow her mother to be slandered like that.

"You gave me a choice to make, and I decided that I would rather live in Calais with my mother than here in London with you." Only once she had said it did Narcissa realise how bad the statement would sound to the man. However, to her surprise, Cygnus' reaction was fairly muted.

"And why would you prefer to live with a strange family in a strange country, with your mother, when you could stay with all your family and friends around you, in the lifestyle and country you have lived in all your life? It seems to be a bit of a silly decision, don't you think?" Narcissa could tell from the tone of his voice that her mother was attempting to throw her a final lifeline. It was now or never.

But, all of a sudden, something inside the girl snapped. Her mind had processed the meaning behind his words, and she was not having it. It would have to be never.

"No, I don't think it was a silly decision at all. And do you wish to know why? It is because she is more intelligent, more caring and more of a decent person than you could ever hope to be, something she always been, though you never saw it. I chose my mother because when you divorced, when you gave us that ultimatum, she showed more love towards me in those short couple of phrases than you could have done in a thousand years."

It was with that statement that Narcissa's family life changed forever. Her father was certainly not a man to be crossed, something her mother had discovered long ago and the three girls had discovered accordingly. Druella had, of course, ensured that the man had never laid a hand on their daughters, no matter how much she had suffered to do so. But Druella was not there, and there was no one to protect the youngest child.

Even half an hour after it had occurred, Narcissa could still feel the aching sting of her cheek, the blow to her face far harsher than one her mother had received in her lifetime. As the tears fell down over the inflamed skin, Narcissa whispered into the darkness, hoping and praying that someone, anyone, would hear.

"Help me. Please, Mama, help me."

A/N: Please review, and she can be helped!


	6. Dream Turned Nightmare

Chapter Six

A/N: Thank you to LeeLee, Guest and Lorin.M.B for reviewing.

Days turned to weeks, weeks to months, and still the abuse Narcissa suffered had not ceased. If anything, over time, it had worsened, to the point where she could hardly bear to wake up in the morning, knowing that she would fall asleep so much worse.

The worst thing was not the physical pain. It was her sisters. They had always been the ones that the young girl could rely on, the ones that would protect her, comfort her, and provide her with a shoulder to cry on. Not anymore.

The two elder Black girls had not been permitted to do any of these things, by their father's rule, of course, meaning that Narcissa, for the first time in her life, had been left quite alone.

One night, as the young blonde crossed off the fourteenth day of hell she had experienced from the scrap of paper she had found, she asked herself a question. '_Why me?'_

It was a very fair question, the child told herself, and she was certain that anyone else would ask the same. After all, during the first ten years of her life, her father had been perfectly civil to her, even warm and loving at times, which for a Pureblooded father was a feat in itself. Now, he seemed to have changed into a whole new person. Now, he seemed to be a monster.

More than a couple of times, Bellatrix and Andromeda had attempted to sneak down to the cellar, the filthy room that Narcissa now called her own, to bring her some better food or to keep her company, but they were always caught and sent away, punished for their disobedience. '_Well, I would hardly call being sent to their bedroom or having their weekly allowance cut down a true punishment, not after the abuse that I get when I do the same thing.'_

"Why couldn't I stay away from here?" she whispered, questioning only herself, as there were no others present in the room. "Why couldn't I stay with Mama, with my cousins, with the people who love me? Why did they hand me over to this?"

That was a question she had asked herself many a time over the past three months. Why would her mother, who clearly loved her so much, allow her to return to the home of the monstrous madman that she had once called her father, after the amount she had suffered at the man's hands herself? '_It can't have been her fault.'_ Narcissa reasoned, if only to comfort herself a little. '_She would not willingly allow her little girl to be hurt like this. Not my mother. Not to me.'_

But then the realisation dawned on the girl. Her mother was not present. She was hundreds of miles away, in Calais, unable to come to the country and save her daughter, due to the nature of her divorce. Narcissa was not allowed to contact the woman in turn, as this was forbidden while the Ministry investigated her treatment of the girl. '_A little ironic, really.'_ the blonde thought, almost allowing herself to smile. '_That my mother is being investigated for her treatment of me, while it's my father who has hurt me more than she could have ever done.'_

Turning her thoughts to her mother, Narcissa considered the woman. '_I wonder if she's alright, if she's coping without me.'_ she wondered, her brow furrowed as she thought. '_I hope the Ministry won't be too harsh while they're interviewing her. I may have been hurt by being here, but that doesn't mean I wish for her to suffer as I have, as she did for so many years. All I want is to go back to Calais, so we can live our lives in peace. So why do I have to stay here?__'_

Her thoughts were once again interrupted, by a hollering of orders from the upstairs rooms. From the voice, the girl could immediately tell that the orders came from her father, who sounded as if he had consumed more alcohol that night than he should have done. '_That's all I need.'_ Narcissa thought, as she collected another bottle of wine from the rack beside her, sighing as she did so.

When she reached the open door of the study, Narcissa paused. Her father was sat beside the fire, and so could not see her, but she could see him well enough, and could see what a terrible state he was in. The floor beside him was littered with empty bottles, a little waste wine spilled across the floor from where he must have slipped while pouring it. '_How the mighty have fallen.'_ her mind commented with anguish. '_Now what will become of me?'_

"Narcissa!" he yelled out once again, and the girl almost entered the room straight away. She caught herself just in time, luckily, as her common sense caught up with her. If she entered immediately, her father would more than likely know that she had been waiting there, and so she waited a good thirty seconds before entering, her head bowed. Unfortunately, this did her no favours.

"Where have you been?!" he barked at her, his voice as harsh as the alcohol he was consuming. "I called for you over two minutes ago!"

"I'm sorry, Father." she whispered, sparking the man's anger once again.

"I am no father of yours! You are just a disgusting little traitor that I happen to have sired, probably not even that, with the flouting of the rules your mother has shown over the years." Each word the man spat at her was like a blade piercing her heart, but she did not show this. This only seemed to aggravate the man further, and he rose staggeringly from the chair, fisting his hand tightly in her hair and pulling her closer to him. "Nothing to say?!"

"No, sir." she responded. It was not long before she realised how much of a mistake this was. With a sound that almost appeared to be a snarl, Cygnus pulled the girl over towards the fireplace, threw her into the wall and left the room in a whirl of rage.

As her head collided with the wall, Narcissa hardly noticed as the fire lept from its grate, catching onto the edge of the rug. This was the last thing she saw before the world became dark.

A/N: Please review, and then she will be alright! (Or will she?)


	7. A Light in the Darkness

Chapter Seven

A/N: Thanks to NicoleKidmanFanxD for reviewing the last chapter.

When she opened her eyes once again, long after morning had dawned once more, and with a pounding in her ears that could only have been coming from her head, Narcissa could see that something was different. A glance around the room confirmed this for her.

Instead of the darkness she had become accustomed to over the past few months, the room was light and airy, with tones of amber dotting the walls. She knew the room in an instant. It was Andromeda's.

"How are you, sweetheart?" asked a warm, familiar voice, one which Narcissa could immediately place as her aforementioned sister, who came into sight just a moment after she spoke. "Are you in any pain? Do you want me to get you a potion for it?"

It took a few seconds for the younger to think of what the elder could have meant, as she was in a state of complete perplexity, but the throbbing pain in her head reminded her of the previous night, and of what had occurred in her father's study. She remembered the shouts, the taunts, the flickering flames, events that had changed Narcissa's life, though she did not yet know by how much margin that would be. It would not be a long time until she found out.

"I don't know how this happened." the young blonde admitted, a hint of fear in her voice at the lack of memory she had of the event which had left her in such a state.

As the numbness of her body began to fade, a vicious ache replaced it, throbbing with pain in the area of her waist. Wishing to know why that area of her body was causing such pain, Narcissa reached for the top of the quilt, seeking to pull it down a little, but Andromeda stopped her the moment she saw the action, laying a hand on top of her sister's, to stop her movements.

"Cissy, you really don't want to see that." the elder warned her, a sudden look of pity and guilt entering into her gaze, one that made the girl a little more uneasy than she had been before her attempt.

"Why?" she asked immediately, the younger sister challenging Andromeda's stare with her own. "What's wrong with it? What's happened to me?"

The moment she had asked, she regretted the decision. The brunette's eyes glossed over with tears, but she acquiesced, seeing how much Narcissa truly needed to know. It was her own life to lead, after all, and it would be quite badly affected once she found out. Better she found out sooner than later, then she would have time to adjust.

Slowly, Andromeda peeled back the layers of blankets, deliberately taking her time, despite the fact that she had convinced herself that speed would be for the best. However, her young sister did not want to wait, and forcefully took the sheets from the young woman's hands, pulling them down so that she could see for herself. Once again, she wished that she had not done it.

Her nightdress, the one she had been wearing when she had gone to see her father, was all but burnt away, and what little remained was blackened with ash. Beneath the scraps, which were stained with flecks of dried blood, the skin of her stomach was reddened and thickly scraped. Blood no longer emerged from the wound, but it was crusting thickly around the wounds. The girl could hardly bear to look at the injuries she had sustained for more than a moment or two, and after that time had passed, she dropped the blankets down as if they were burning her hands, tears glistening in her sapphire eyes at the pain it caused her to twist a little in the blankets.

"Oh Cissy, sweetheart, I'm so sorry." Andromeda sighed, gathering the girl to her chest, though doing so very gently, so as not to injure her any further.

Instinctively, Narcissa's first response would have been to push her sister away. While she was the youngest of the three of them by the time of her birth, she had never wished to be babied by the two elder girls. Of course, she had never had to rebuff such extravagancies from her father, and had never minded the extreme show of affection she had always received from her mother, but nevertheless, she did not wish to appear weak in front of a girl who had always been stronger than she had. However, that still not stop her from collapsing in the teenager's arms, no longer having the self-restraint to care about the image of frailty she was portraying.

"Why does he hate me, Andy?" she sobbed, clutching at the brunette's shirt, as if she were a buoy in the rapids of a river. "All I wanted to do was live with my mother. How could that make him want to hurt me like this?"

Andromeda said nothing in response, merely held on tighter to the younger, the protective instinct surfacing from deep inside her heart, where she had hidden it when Narcissa had left with their mother. They stayed in that way for a long time, until the young girl's tears had dried.

"Cissy?" the elder questioned, tipping her sister's chin upwards so that their eyes were level.

"Yes?" she replied, her voice still laden with the tears she had been crying for so long, even longer if the tears she had cried in her heart were counted.

"I'll be honest with you, Narcissa, I don't know if he hates you or not. He would be unfounded if he did do, mind, as you haven't done anything wrong, but I wouldn't put it past him. There is one good thing that has come out of this, though."

For a moment, the blonde could not see what her sister was speaking of, and was entirely oblivious to what the brunette meant. However, when she elaborated, all became clear for the both of them.

"He has just handed you right over to Mama."

A/N: I will get the trial up in the next chapter. Please review!


	8. An Imperfect Daughter

Chapter Eight

A/N:

The morning of the trial had dawned stormy, a fact that had not been comforting to the young girl cowering in the corner of the basement she had slept in for the past few weeks. She hoped that that arrangement would come to an end that day, but Narcissa had learnt a long time ago that hopes only caused her to be let down. It was better not to try.

'_I wonder if my mother is as fearful as I am.'_ she asked herself in her mind, hoping that the answer was not in the affirmative. She herself had been bitter with fear ever since she had been hit by her father on that first night, and had found that it was a terrible way to live. She would not wish that feeling on her worst enemy, let alone on her own dear mother. '_But I don't think that she will be. She is strong. Stronger than I will ever be.'_

Strength was a trait that she had not inherited from her mother, something that she had been told by her father many a time, though the woman herself disagreed, along with her sisters and the Rosier family as well. However, she had not been affected at all by this fact, not until now, when strength was something she felt she severely lacked, while it was the one thing she really needed for the day.

She was brought from her contemplations by a knock on the door. For a solitary, terrifying moment, she thought that it was her father outside of the door, but the quiet voice that emerged from the hallway a minute later told that explicitly that it was not. "Cissy? Are you alright, are you awake?"

Immediately, the girl stood to open the wooden panel in the wall, which was so battered that it did very little help in insulating the room at all, as it was so worn that a child could have kicked it in with a single thrust of their foot. As she had expected, it was Andromeda who stood outside, leaning on the wall with an expression of worry on her face, one which she always wore when secretly visiting her sister, as if she feared for the pair of them should she be caught, as Narcissa did.

"Andy?" the blonde questioned, catching the elder's attention. "What are you doing here? If you get caught, Father will-"

"Don't worry about that, Cissy." the young woman replied, stepping forward to place one hand flat on the child's cheek. "He sent me down here, to give you these."

This sentence had drawn the girl's attention, for the first time, to the bundle of black in Andromeda's hands. When she opened it out, having taken it from her, she saw that it consisted of a black pinafore type of dress with a pleated skirt, a clean mid sleeved white shirt and a pair of white tights, ending in a pair of black shoes so highly polished that she could see her face in them quite clearly. It had been a great deal of time since she had been presented with clothes so clean, or clothes that had been cleaned at all, and she was not certain how to react at being given some.

"You are to wear them for the trial today, Father said." she explained, and everything suddenly became much clearer to Narcissa. He did not want to give them wrong impression at the trial, for fear that it would give her mother an advantage, one which may lead to her winning the battle. He wanted to appear the doting father, when in fact he was anything but. "He wants for you to look presentable."

"Yes, I'm sure that he does." the blonde responded, unable to keep the dripping sarcasm from her voice, despite the impropriety of using such a technique in language at such a young age. Her mother had never approved of her use of such a thing, and so she did not do it often, for the woman's sake alone, but she was not here, and so the child saw no reason not to do so. "He wants me to look like the perfect daughter, so that he can look like the perfect father."

"That's probably the gist of it." Andromeda told her sister, the tone of sympathy just as audible as the sarcasm in the younger's. "Mama will win, you know. If you tell the Wizengamot what he's done, then they'll never allow you to stay here. They'll send you straight back over to Calais, with Mama."

"I hope so." she replied, the tone showing that it was evident what she said was true. "Because if she doesn't win, I don't know what will happen to me."

"I won't let anything happen to you, Cissy." the brunette stated strongly, one arm wrapping about the girl's shoulders, the other ending in a tightly curled fist as she told her this truth. "I won't, and neither will Bella, and neither will Mama. She would kill Papa and go to Azkaban, quite willingly, if it meant that you would be safe. She'd do the same for any of us, of course she would, but it's for you that she would be most likely to. You're her baby, the last child she had and will ever have. She would rather die herself than have you suffer here any more than you already have done. She loves you, Cissy, and she won't let you down."

"We hope." Narcissa added, a little hint of scepticism audible beneath the pain of the fear that she felt.

"We know." the woman returned, with as much strength as she had said everything else in the past few minutes, as if she were trying to convince herself as much as her sister. "This is it, Cissy. You are going home, and not even Papa can stop you."

Even as she exited the house, the blonde could not help but recall the elder's words, and pray to anyone listening that they would come true.

A/N: By the way, so you know, Druella can't have any more children because of something that happened to her when she had Narcissa. Please review!


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